URBED and Rambøll Denmark were commissioned by Stoke City Council in August 2008 to carry out a sustainable energy assessment of the city centre in order to examine options for the development of low and zero carbon forms of energy supply.

Background
Stoke-on-Trent City Centre Regeneration is looking to establish the possibility of becoming an ‘energy producing community’. The study was commissioned to review the options and consider if the scale of new development proposed within the city centre could make using sustainable energy technology viable and, if so what technologies could and should be promoted.

This could also create the potential to establish a new economic sector that could create new jobs in research and development, manufacturing and maintenance and could make Stoke City a centre of excellence for renewable and sustainable construction technology.

Study brief
The brief sets out the need to establish whether there is the potential to introduce local energy grids managed by a local Energy Services Company (or ESCo), and whether there is significant potential to reduce reliance on imported electricity and heating.

Whilst all new developments in Stoke-on-Trent should look to increase energy efficiency and make use of sustainable energy technology, what might be the most appropriate and relevant measures that should be promoted in relation to the key individual projects, and could this form the basis for a new employment sector?

The study will assess the current carbon loads generated by the City Centre to establish a baseline position. It should then assess the growth in carbon loads likely from the proposed City Centre projects, and finally the study should (after reviewing the most appropriate green energy technologies) project the Carbon loads after completion of the ‘green city centre’ approach in order to articulate a clear business case.

Based on the appropriate technologies identified the study will then need to set out an action plan, priorities, and a programme. It will also need to provide a clear set of recommendations in relation to delivery, funding and 6 partnerships required to take forward the recommended programme, together with a mechanism for performance management and evaluation.